View full sizeTriathlete Doug McCard appears on CBS TV to talk about being attacked by an 8-foot alligator while swimming in a lake near Orlando, Fla. (Sometimes humorous,
sometimes provocative, Fodder is a recurring online Press-Register
feature that spotlights water cooler discussion topics of regional or
national interest. Read more
Fodder here.)

ORLANDO -- Thirty-five-year-old Doug McCard, a swimmer and triathlete, was attacked by an 8-foot alligator Sunday morning at Moss Park in southeast Orange County and appeared on television this morning to talk about the ordeal.

McCard said he swims in Lake Mary Jane every week for training and has been swimming in the lake since he was 5. It was while he was in the lake's shallow end, he said, that the alligator hit him "like a Mack truck."

McCard said he elbowed the gator in the head and it
released him. Witnesses called 911 as he made it to shore. Although he has a number of deep puncture wounds near his shoulder and hip, no bones were broken and doctors expect McCard to recover fully.

So shouldn't a grown man who grew up swimming in a Florida lake know to look out for gators? Sure nuff, McCard said. He said he's always on the lookout. "I even looked around and stood to see if I saw them. I always do. I always stand and take a look. I know they're there. There are gators in every lake, but I saw nothing so I swam like I always do," McCard said.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is trying to catch the gator and wildlife officials say the animal will be killed if caught because of the attack.

Collecting hair for oil spill booms becomes nationwide fad

Hair clippings off salon floors are being collected across the country to be stuffed into pantyhose and made into human hair booms to soak up oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.If you didn't already realize that collecting hair in salons and other places to make booms to soak up the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has become a nationwide craze, check out these links:

salon has shipping boxes of hair to Matter of Trust,
an environmental protection organization that stuffs donated hair into
nylon stockings to form booms that can absorb oil from oil spills. "It's just a wonderful thing and every salon should be part of it," Jennifer Reiland-Meath said.

"It's our effort to help save the Gulf,"
said Leslie Garcia, manager at Lulu's The Salon and Day Spa in Galveston, Texas. "Get a
haircut, help save the earth, basically."

And if human hair isn't enough, how about alpaca fleece? Four alpacas at an Alabama zoo are "donating" fleece to a group making
hair-filled booms. See video below and, below that, Fodder links for the day.

Your daily Fodder links:

This will get you locked up fast: A Columbus, Ga., man is accused of swinging so wildly when trying to start a drunken brawl that he hit not one, but two police officers, with one blow.

A North Carolina waitress is out of a job after griping on her Facebook page about the $5 tip she got from a couple who sat at their table for 3 hours. The waitress says the customers kept her at work an hour after she was supposed to clock out. The Charlotte Observer reported today that 22-year-old Ashley Johnson felt slighted after waiting on the couple at Brixx Pizza. So she blasted the couple on Facebook, calling them cheap and mentioning the restaurant by name.